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The Bleedings
-2567 |place= , Alpha Chandra System |result= |side1=Gilgamesh Free State |side2=Pro-GFS paramilitaries |side3=Pro- forces |side4=Criminal syndicates |commanders1= |commanders2= |commanders3= |commanders4= |forces1= *Gilgamesh Free Armed Forces *Frontier Defense Corps *Gilgamesh Free State Auxiliaries |forces2= *Gilgameshan Liberation Army *Gilgameshan Independence Party *Associated militias |forces3= * *Terran Loyalist Volunteers *Terran Loyalist Defense League |forces4= *Innumerable syndicates and gangs |forces5= |casual1= |casual2= |casual3= |casual4= }} The Bleedings was a period of intense sectarian violence on following the declaration of the Gilgamesh Free State in and the abandonment of the planet that same year. The most intense period of the violence lasted from until , and came to an end in with the UNSC's return to the planet, although the intervening thirteen years still saw a low-level conflict. The Bleedings were the result of several factors. First, while the UNSC presence on Gilgamesh had been minuscule, and the colonial government unable to prevent lawlessness in many areas, conflict between the Gilgamesh Free Army and the UNSC had been limited to skirmishes on the frontier, as they did not want to draw attention to themselves, and the UNSC was in no position on the planet to launch full-scale anti-insurgency operations. Second, the formation of the Gilgamesh Free State emboldened sympathizers even outside its borders, leading to increasingly brazen and sometimes violent acts, which themselves led to clashes and tit-for-tat killings between UEG loyalists and pro-GFS citizens. In the midst of this lay the innumerable criminal syndicates of Gilgamesh, who supplied weapons to all sides to keep the conflict going and prevent the Free State from stepping in and creating law and order. In some cases, gangs even engaged in operations against the Gilgamesh Free State, mostly in retaliation for actions by the Auxiliaries that harmed their profitable operations, and the fact that these actions were tacitly condoned by the Free State. However, in the post-invasion period, with a much heavier UNSC presence, the criminal syndicates disappeared from the equation almost completely, though they still aided rebel groups in acquiring supplies and information. History Beginnings ( - ) paramilitaries march through the streets of Avarin in .]] Violence Peaks ( - ) Low-Level Conflict ( - ) Post-Invasion ( -2565) The Bleedings came to an end in October with the final dissolution of the Gilgamesh Free State after the UNSC-GFS War. As with other formerly rebel worlds, as punishment for rebellion, the UNSC stationed a heavy presence on the colony, and began to hunt any rebel fugitives or war criminals. While some pro-GFS militants continued fighting against the UNSC, usually falling in with units of the Forgotten Soldiers, most paramilitary groups, both pro-GFS and otherwise, simply disbanded. This was not the case for pro-UNSC loyalists, who became folded into local to help 'keep the peace'. Along with this, they also helped the local UNSC authorities find and try former paramilitaries who had committed war crimes or crimes against humanity. Despite this extensive campaign to root out former paramilitaries, the crimes the pro-UNSC paramilitaries had committed in their own campaign of violence were conveniently forgotten and swept under the rug. In late , the trials of the former paramilitaries began under the purview of a UNSC military court on the planet. While some of the paramilitary commanders had indeed committed the crimes they were accused of, and had a preponderance of evidence against them, many of the former fighters and even some officers who were brought to trial were convicted in sham trials. Many of these men showed signs of torture during their broadcast confessions, and almost all were convicted on trumped-up charges, most of which only had circumstantial evidence that only proved the crimes were committed by a certain group, not necessarily by the defendants themselves, leading to a great deal of convictions based on faulty evidence or guilt of association. The military courts also handed down an extraordinary number of death sentences, which, coupled with the gross miscarriages of justice seen during the trials, led to a vocal outcry by the citizenry of . These show trials and the outrage they caused on Gilgamesh, coupled with the anger of former citizens of the Free State at the fact that the UNSC had violated the terms of surrender and not released the prisoners of war taken during the war on-time, led to an explosion of protests and, especially after a heavy crackdown by the garrison and law enforcement on pro-rebel protests, acts of violence against the UNSC garrison and pro-UNSC individuals and groups. In smaller outlying settlements, enraged by the fact the UNSC were not willing to mete out justice to their own paramilitaries, many of whom had committed the same crimes as those pro-GFS fighters were being executed for, many citizens began to dispense mob justice to those known or suspected as having been pro-UNSC fighters. Across the colony, units of the Gilgamesh Underground State began their own campaign of assassinations and terror in response not only to the miscarriages of justice against rebel paramilitaries, but also against the fact that not all POWs had been released, even as of 2557. The first targets were members of the upper echelons of the colonial government. In a rash of high-profile assassinations and bombings that lasted from December 2556 to February 2557, the commander of the garrison on Gilgamesh, several of his staff, the colonial governor, and numerous pro-UEG politicians and police chiefs, had been assassinated. As security was stepped up around high-level politicians, the rebel militants began to work their way down, moving to targeting pro-UEG local leaders and choosing everyday people who actively collaborated with the government or worked in pro-UEG political parties at random for assassination or violentmuggings. The most publicized of these attacks was a coordinated strike on January 1st, . The first was on a New Year's celebration held at the headquarters of the Terran Loyalist Party in the city of Avarin. Two rebel militants, driving a truck loaded with several bombs recovered from GFAF frontier airfields, parked it in front of the headquarters, before fleeing. Elsewhere in the city, other truck bombs were placed in front of other targets, including the local police and colonial government headquarters. At 0200, the bombs detonated, and in the ensuing confusion, military police and civilian law enforcement checkpoints were assaulted by units of rebel militants, and rebel 'hit squads' targeted specific officials, including a suspected local ONI deepcover agent, Victoria O'Connell, who was abducted and killed by seven former operators of the Gilgameshan Special Air Service. While ONI immediately summoned a team of to neutralize the rebel paramilitaries, the damage had already been done, and the Underground State appeared to have halted operations immediately after the Avarin bombings. With almost no information on the Gilgamesh Underground State, the Headhunters went after what few militant groups that there were information on. While they were impressive at making them disappear, most of the groups were unskilled fighters, little more than civilians with guns and bombs who followed the Underground State, and as a result they did little to curb the GUS's capabilities. Alongside this, the compartmentalized nature of the Underground State meant that ONI's efforts to follow trails that would lead them to the leadership of the GUS quickly became frustrated, and with Headhunters in high demand, they were soon sent off to deal with more pressing issues. For about six years, besides the odd ambush on UNSC checkpoints or detention centers by the Forgotten Soldiers or small-scale bombings, the rebel presence on Gilgamesh remained remarkably quiet. However, in mid-2564, a massive data dump by a mysterious rebel group led to massive protests and riots by the populace of Gilgamesh, and the Underground State once again emerged. As more and more colonists and even some law enforcement and military personnel pledged their allegiance to the Underground State, the remaining UNSC loyalists in the colonial government and garrison simply gave up, and attempted to blend back into the population. This included many of the ONI field agents, although with the dump of files exposing mostly crimes perpetrated by ONI, they were hunted mercilessly, with anyone suspected of being one or having been one dispatched by mob justice, a fact which only became more prevalent with the order by the UEG for all UNSC personnel to work towards hunting and arresting ONI operatives. Finally, in 2567, with the implementation of the Commonwealth Act, the Gilgamesh Free State was reestablished as an independent entity with loyalty to the UEG, and, with the exception of some very small rebel groups or hardline Terran loyalists, the nearly seventy-year old violent sectarian conflict between the two sides finally came to an end. Category:Safe Havens